Lighter Creamy Gravy

Most attempts at a lower fat cream gravy fail because people swap double cream for single or half fat creme fraiche, and then it splits. This uses light evaporated milk instead, which is heat stable in a way that low fat creams are not, plus a spoonful of real cream at the end for the mouthfeel. It is genuinely lighter and it does not curdle.

Ingredients

Makes about 400ml, enough for four plates

• 1 tsp rapeseed oil
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 400ml (14fl oz) hot chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 tbsp cornflour
• 3 tbsp cold water for slaking the cornflour
• 150ml (5fl oz) light evaporated milk the reduced fat tinned sort, not condensed milk
• 1 tbsp double cream just one, and it earns its place
• salt and black pepper to taste

Kit

• Saucepan
• Small bowl
• Whisk

Method

1. Heat the oil in the saucepan over a medium heat and cook the onion for six minutes with a pinch of salt until soft and translucent. A teaspoon of oil is enough if you keep the heat moderate and stir.

2. Pour in the hot stock and the mustard, bring to a simmer and cook for three minutes so the onion softens completely into it.

3. Stir the cornflour into the cold water in a small bowl until there are no lumps at all. Cornflour must be slaked in cold liquid before it meets a hot pan, otherwise it sets into little jelly beads the moment it hits the heat.

4. Pour the slaked cornflour into the simmering stock in a steady stream, whisking. It will thicken within thirty seconds and turn from cloudy to glossy. Let it simmer for two minutes to lose any starchy taste.

5. Taste and season now, while there is no dairy in the pan and the salt reads true.

6. Turn the heat right down and pour in the evaporated milk. Warm it through for two minutes. Evaporated milk has been heat treated in the tin, which is exactly why it does not curdle the way single cream or half fat creme fraiche would at this stage.

7. Take the pan off the heat, stir in the single tablespoon of double cream and grind in black pepper. That one spoonful adds the fat that coats your tongue and makes it read as a cream gravy rather than a thin white sauce.

Tips worth knowing

• Do not substitute single cream or half fat creme fraiche to make a sauce lighter. They have the fat removed that would otherwise stop them splitting, so you end up with a curdled sauce and no calorie saving worth having.
• Cornflour gives a glossier, lighter set than flour and uses no fat at all, which is why it is the right thickener here. Use half the weight you would use of plain flour.
• Cornflour thickened sauces thin out if you boil them for a long time, so once it has thickened, stop simmering it.
• The single tablespoon of real double cream at the end does more for the texture than another hundred millilitres of low fat anything. Fat is what makes a sauce feel creamy, so spend it where it counts.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps three days in the fridge. Cornflour sauces can go slightly watery on standing, so whisk it well as it reheats over a low heat. It does not freeze well, as cornflour thickened sauces separate on thawing.

Questions people ask